Big Bill

Question: how did a Polish charity rack up a phone bill of over 10,000 Polish zloty ($2,700; £2,064) A) a volunteer  spent many hours on the phone to his partner in Australia asking her to marry him; B) a GPS tracker that had been placed on a stork went missing; or C) the telecoms company made an error and the correct total was the equivalent of £20.60?  Answer B, the big bill is all down to a stork going AWOL.  According to Radio Poland, environmental charity Ecologic Group had placed the tracker onto the back of a white stork to monitor the bird’s migratory habits.  At first, all was going so swimmingly well.  The charity was able to track the stork’s movements as it travelled to the Blue Nile Valley in eastern Sudan, an impressive 3,700 miles or so away.  Until that is the GPS tracker somehow got separated from the bird and somebody removed the sim card, placed it in his or her phone and then proceeded to make 20 hours worth of calls.  Ouch!  But with such a great excuse, the editor wonders if the charity had to settle the ‘bill’ or if the telecoms company took pity on the charity and let them off the hook.